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The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall welcome the Dalai Lama to Clarence House

20th June 2012

The Dalai Lama visits Clarence House

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall welcome the Dalai Lama to Clarence House

The Dalai Lama has paid a heartfelt tribute to The Prince of Wales, describing him as a "very close" friend after the two men held talks in London.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader also urged The Prince to carry on his work and in touching scenes the pair held hands, touched heads and patted each other on the back during their time together.

His words of praise came after The Prince, The Duchess of Cornwall and the spiritual figurehead held an informal meeting at Clarence House for around an hour.

Their Royal Highnesses took the Dalai Lama to see the magnolia spectrum tree he planted in the Clarence House garden following their last meeting in 2008.

After a brief tour of some of the flower beds the spiritual figurehead, who had grasped The Prince's right hand, stopped in front of the waiting media and said about The Prince: "I always consider him from my first meeting, a very close, best of friends."

The Prince replied "very touching" and the Dalai Lama went on to say: "This gentleman right from the beginning, I felt 'very nice person, good human'."

He went on to say "... through his own actions he (has) proved a very wonderful, sensible, good human being" and stressed that the royal should continue on his present path, telling him: "Please carry (on) your work, your spirit, continuously."

Since The Prince last met the exiled spiritual leader he has held discussions with China's President Hu Jintao, raising the subject of Tibet during talks in London in 2009.

The Tibetan spiritual leader is on a 10-day tour of Britain with a mission to spread his Buddhist teachings of peace and understanding to young people.